1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to sleeves for protecting elongate members, and more particularly to non-woven self wrapping acoustic protection sleeves for receiving elongate members therein.
2. Related Art
It is known that wires and wire harnesses carried in sleeves in vehicles, such as in automobiles, aircraft or aerospace craft, can produce undesirable noise while the vehicle is in use. The noise typically stems from the wires or harnesses vibrating against the sleeve and/or adjacent components, wherein the vibration results from vibrating components in the vehicle, and in the case of automotive vehicles, movement of the vehicle over a ground surface. As such, it is customary to spirally wrap wires and wire harnesses with sound masking tape to reduce the potential for noise generation. Unfortunately, applying tape is labor intensive, and thus, costly. In addition, the appearance of the tape can be unsightly, particularly over time as the tape wears. Further, in service, tape can provide difficulties in readily accessing the wound wires.
Other than applying tape, it is known to incorporate acoustic protection in the form of woven, braided or knitted fabric sleeves about the wires to reduce the potential for noise generation. The sleeves are typically manufactured from noise suppressing materials, such as selected monofilament and texturized multifilament polyester yarns. The sleeves are either wrapped and fastened about the wires, or applied as a self wrapping sleeve construction. If wrapped and fastened, additional costs are incurred for the fasteners and in attaching the fasteners to the sleeves. Further, additional labor and/or processes are typically involved to secure the sleeves about the wires. And thus, although these sleeves generally prove useful in suppressing noise generation in use, they can be relatively costly to manufacture, given that they are woven, knitted or braided, with additional costs being incurred to attach fasteners to the sleeves and to secure the sleeves about the wires.
An acoustic sleeve manufactured according to the present invention overcomes or greatly minimizes any limitations of the prior art described above, and also provides enhanced potential to suppress noise generation by elongate members carried in the sleeves.